Permafrost
by The-Angst-Chronicles
Summary: Maybe they were just right together.


**WORD COUNT: 1914**

 **PAIRING: Hance, (temporary) Laith, (temporary) Sheith**

 **TAGS: getting together, ooc! Allura, breakup, jumpy narrative**

 **SUMMARY: Maybe they were just right together.**

 **COMMENTS: So I've had this sitting on my computer since November 2016 lmao because I hadn't written the last three paragraphs. I figured I'd just finish it up and post it. This whole story was supposed to be me writing down the idea for it, but then it just word vomited out orz. So the style is kinda...different than my usual style? And it jumps around a lot.**

 **Because it was written so long ago some things might not fit in canon. I changed a few small details that didn't require much, but didn't feel like rewriting it. Consider this an AU after S1 if you must. I'll do a second chapter of Hunk's POV of the whole thing in the...same timeline? I'm not sure what the timeline will be, it will probably ramble like this one.**

* * *

It had surprised the two of them the most when they came together. Standing hand in hand, palms sweating as they told the others, they each had expected something different. Lance expected to see his own shock at the situation reflected back at him, and perhaps disdain of his unworthiness beside Keith. Keith, fidgeting, had expected backlash, disgust. His last and only relationship with a man had gotten him kicked out of his foster family of the time.

Their teammates gave them neither. Pidge had smirked, holding out her hands for some kind of payment while Hunk had groaned and sworn it would take longer. Shiro had simply smiled, looking proud. Allura had sighed and paid up to Pidge, while Coran had started clapping in delight. Lance had still been in shock.

Shiro said, a moment later, that he was happy they had finally stopped dancing around it. And Keith had given him that smile that melted away all other feelings, and he fell further. His own silly smile uncontrollable as it shone back.

* * *

It hadn't lasted. He wasn't surprised, looking back. Fire and Ice could never exist in harmony. They had come together like a tornado and a volcano, all fury and fire, and fell apart in much the same way. It had been little things, at first. Lance's disinclination to take situations too seriously, Keith's inability to take a joke, little arguments that got out of hand until some days Lance couldn't look at him without wanting to bite, without wanting to hurt. He could tell Keith felt it too, tell in the way Keith would sometimes snipe sharp, hurtful comments in response to Lance's jokes or harmless conversations.

Soon there was more fury than flame, words sharp as daggers shrieking towards each other and long nights spent stiffly in bed, trying not to touch as they nursed metaphorical wounds. The kisses that had been balms became bandages, hiding instead of soothing.

When they broke up, it was a mutual decision. Keith had sat him down first, looking miserable. His clothes were rumpled like he'd been tossing and turning, his hair as though he'd been running his fingers through it. "I think," he'd said, and choked on his words.

"We should break up," Lance had finished for him because he'd felt it too, and Keith's face had fallen into a mix of relief and sorrow. And like that it was over, Lance's heart splintering to pieces as his first real relationship ended. At the same time it was like he was finally treading water after drowning in flames for the past two years.

Voltron was easier after that, without the hurt that followed their clashing. There were still those awkward moments where one of them stepped too far, forgetting what wasn't there place – there was still care and love underneath in the end, and odd moments were one would get too attached, too worried for a simple teammate were inevitable. It was Pidge who usually picked up on the tenseness that followed, cracking a joke that was somehow worse than Lance's and giving an outlet to the awkward laughter.

It hurt living next to him, but Lance managed.

* * *

When they finally defeated Zarkon, it happened on Earth. It was almost poetic, Lance thought distantly as he watched Shiro drive the black bayard through their nemesis. Poetic that it should end here, where it began. That it should end on fiery sand with the lapping sounds of water nearby. That it should end with the Earth military present, Iverson watching their victory and watching Shiro turn his "pilot error" into the universe's saving grace. It was fitting that it should end here, the homeground of the paladins that Zarkon so foolishly thought he could take.

It was fitting that Keith should catch Shiro when he collapsed in exhaustion. Fitting that Keith's lips should fit across Shiro's like it was meant to be there, that Keith's cheek should fit so perfectly into Shiro's Galran hand. Lance felt numb.

It was him who made the first move. He was sobbing into his eighth drink of the night and being comforted by Hunk while Pidge went to go and find some water, in a little room far removed from the celebratory party. Hunk had pulled him into his lap and was murmuring comforts at him, and Lance had become overcome by affection. He'd pulled Hunk in, hesitantly and tearfully pressing their lips together. It was a short kiss, just a smush of lips against lips and then he was pulling away, apologising and crying still. Hunk had just shushed him and pulled him back in, slotting their mouths properly together and holding him close with big, warm hands.

He'd been the one to pull away, then, pushing them apart with a hand on his friend's chest. "You deserve better than to be my rebound," he'd said, a truth and an understatement. Hunk was pureness and goodness incarnate, and he deserved better than Lance full stop. A fact he'd made peace with in the first week of knowing him.

The weeks that followed found him finding his flow. The sight of Keith and Shiro still caused his heart to ache but Keith being unavailable finally cast off the anchor Lance hadn't realised was still affixed. Adrift now, he had slowly started to wet his feet again in bars and stolen kisses with nameless strangers.

The world continued around him, intel and missions on Sam Holt, flirtations with aliens, receiving the Medal of Valour with his fellow paladins back on Earth. The uncontrolled blaze steadied into a calming patter of rain.

* * *

When it came time to hand punishment to the Galra, Allura demanded a heavy price; and only the Blade of Marmora were spared. Shiro and Pidge stood stern with arms crossed while Hunk watched with clenched fists, but Lance's eyes were drawn to the way Keith's shoulders fell at every spark of anger and despair in Galran eyes.

Standing against Allura was like stepping into the path of an avalanche, cold and deadly, and Lance was freezing in her gaze as he turned to face her as he stood between her and the Galra. He thought he must be dead as his ears buzzed and his mouth moved, barely recognizing what he was saying; "You cannot make a whole race pay for the crimes of a few."

But her whole race had paid for the crimes of none. She looked as if she might shoot him with his own bayard, insisted he step aside. Terror compelled him to obey but his body remained frozen as more words bubbled up and spilled out. "You alone don't choose punishment for the universe. We've all had a hand in defending it." He supposed word-vomit was better than terror-vomit.

In the end it came down to a vote. When it was time to put up, Lance didn't actually know what he wanted and he floundered. Then Hunk was coming forward with a reasonable sounding offer to add to it, and Lance and Keith quickly agreed. Then Shiro, then Pidge following, and then various allies that they'd liberated voicing their support. The relief in the Galra's eyes as it was clear that the Alteans were outvoted was a sunrise over the beach. Allura trembled with a fury the likes of which Lance had never seen, and looked at him with such hatred that Hunk actually walked him back to his room.

It was Hunk that made the second move, there in his room after the standoff. Lance had collapsed onto the bed and stared at his shaking legs. He'd looked up at the door shutting and Hunk had been there still, watching him with soft eyes.

"That was amazing."

He'd cocked his head, smirked, opened his mouth to agree- and then Hunk was over him, Hunk's mouth over his, Hunk pulling away his words and his thoughts both. He'd moaned and sunk into the kiss, getting lost in the taste of sunshine and light. When they pulled apart it was more like coming together. Hunk had smiled sweetly down at him and trailed a thumb over his cheek, and Lance found himself thinking that maybe they were _just right_ together.

His relationship with Keith had been like fire and ice, clashing beautifully but ultimately failing. His relationship with Hunk was slower, stable and firm. Hunk grounded him and supported him, and he wasn't entirely sure what Hunk got out of it but he seemed happy enough. He'd told Lance once of permafrost, while they lay in bed tracing patterns on each other's skin, how in parts of the world ice and earth joined together to become the basis of a whole biome. Hunk had given him a warm smile then, eyes crinkling up in the corners, and pressed a kiss to his nose. Lance thought it was a beautiful analogy.

* * *

When Keith and Shiro broke up, Lance found he wasn't surprised, and that was the worst part. Somewhere, somehow, he had known that they wouldn't last, known that Keith rebounding with Shiro would ruin them. He thought somehow that it was sad; Shiro was like the night, calm and everpresent, his steadiness in the twinkling of the stars and the shifting of the moon. Lance had always loved sitting out on the beach at night with a small fire lighting his toes. They went well together. He'd cried for them, and felt bad in turn for not taking care of Keith better.

He had known not to rebound with someone serious; Keith hadn't. Stupid, earnest Keith, with the social grace of an elephant in a flight simulator, who hadn't known any better. But Lance had, and he'd let him. Stupid, stupid.

Hunk had held him through that again, telling him that it wasn't his fault and reminding him that Keith wasn't his responsibility anymore. Lance felt guilty for that too, making Hunk comfort him over his ex.

* * *

They met Allura again when she had located Sam Holt. She still hadn't quite forgiven him, but Lance could see that she regretted her actions too. Their interaction was stiff, more formal than it had ever been, but it was getting better. He was sure that with time, they would be alright. She thought so too, if the small smile she gave him was any indication.

She came back with them to Earth afterwards, choosing it as a new home because it was where her Paladins were. They still went up to space often, their status making them diplomats and ambassadors, and Paladins when Voltron was needed. It was a life that Lance had only dreamed of, and he couldn't be happier.

Lance was the one to make the final move two years later, on New Year's Day on Earth. The team had gathered to celebrate and Lance had pulled Hunk away from the group to a private bluff, overlooking the sea. There, under the fireworks as the clock struck midnight, Lance knelt and pulled out a ring. Hunk cried and kissed him and pulled out his own ring because they had discussed wanting to get married for a while now, and then they were falling into an embrace with tears and laughter.

When they finally went back to the rest of the team, it was with big smiles and red cheeks, shiny rings, and the sappiest New Year's resolutions of the lot.

* * *

 **That's it, hope you enjoyed**


End file.
